Latch-hook.



' No. 873,235- PATENTED DEC. 10, 1907.

E. A. HILL.

LATGH HOOK.

APPLICATION FILED 00T.9,1907.

' ber longitudinally of its shank.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD A. HILL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINoIs, ASSIGNOR TO CHICAGO GRAIN noon COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

LATCH-HOOK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 9. 1907- serial No- 396.550.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDW RD A. HILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements'in Latch-Hooks, of which the following is a s ecification.

My invention re ates to latch hooks or hangers and has for its object to provide new and improved constructions in devices of that character.

The latch hook or hanger of my invention is particularly designed for holding the free end of a swinging freight car door to the ceiling when the door is notin use, although .the device might obviously be put to other uses; and consists in general of a socket attached to a rafter or other part of the car, a latch device com rising a shank and a foot to extend under t e door, and cooperating means on the shank and socket whereby a spiral movement may be given to the shank when force is exerted upon the latch mem- This relation between the shank and the socket prevents the foot from being disengaged from the door by accidental movement or jar.

A latch hooklike the above is made the subject of my patent No. 862,914 granted August 13, 1907. I g

It is the object of the present invention to provide certain new and improved constructions whereby a stron er, more effective and more easily manipu ated latch hook is obtained.

These objects and such other objects as may be described in the following specification and specifically set forth in the claims are illustrated in the accompanying drawin s, wherein igure 1 is a cross section of a car and car door showing my latch hook a plied thereto. Fig. 2 is an elevation of a latch iook embody ing one form of my invention. Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 2. Fi 4 is an elevation at right angles to Fig. 2. ig. 5 is a erspective view of the hook or latch; and ig. 6 is an elevation similar to Fig. 2 showing a modification.

Like characters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of the drawing.

Referring to the drawings, A represents the roof of a car, B the flooring, C'a rafter supporting the roof, D the car door of a to receive and support a latch or hoo construction commonly used on grain cars which is shown as hinged to the car at d and consisting of one or more parts whichmay be folded together and attached by appro priate means to the roof of the car.

E (Fig. 1) represents a latch hook of my invention which is shown as supporting the door D. This device consists of a socket 7 secured to the rafter I by means of the bolts or screws 8, 9, 10. This socket is desi ned 11 which consists of a shank 12 and a foot 13.

In the upper part of the socket is a'slot 14 hook with a heel or pointed projection 19.

The under edge of the foot is formed on a Y bevel, as shown at 20 (Fig. 3).

In Fig. 2 the door is shown as folded and raised upon the foot of the latch hook. The hook, it will be seen, is supported in the socket by means of the projection 15 which lies at the bottom of the slot 14.

spiral movement will be given to the latch hook, which frees it from the door. When the door is swung down, the hook will return to its normal position, being guided by projection 15riding down into the slot..

Some freight cars are very high and in such case the hook cannot conveniently be manipulated by hand. The heel 19 makes it easy to lift the hook by means of a pole which may be applied to the point of the 100 heel.

In the construction shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4 it will be seen that there are two engagements between the latch hook and the socket for giving the hook rotary movement 105 as it is raised, that is, engagement between shoulder 16 and cam 17 and that between the projection 15 and the edge of slot 14. Ordinarily the device will be constructed so that the rotary movement is given the hook 110 I preferably form the shank of the latch If upward pressure be exerted against the hook, a

- position.

by cam 16 as the friction is less at this point of engagement than at the other. If, however, the socket becomes broken at this place, projection 15 will give the hook the same movement.

In Fig. 6 I have shown a modification in which the socket designated by the numeral 21 has the slot 22 for reception of the projection 23 open at the top.

It will be seen that the weight of the door on the foot of the latch hook keeps projeetion 15 at the bottom of its slot and resists the tendency of the latch hook to be rotated by any accidental movement or ar. When the door is swung down, the hook turns automatically to its normal position. When the door is pushed up against it, it engage% the hook on the beveled surface 20 and causes it to rotate and move vertically. When the door has passed over the point of thehook, the latter of itself falls back into its holding The turned position of the hook is shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4. An increased binding of the shank and socket may be obtained by aflixing the device to the rafter at an angle to the vertical.

I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to limit myself to the precise devices and constructions herein described, as obvious modifications will occur to those skilled in the art, which modifications may still come within the scope of my invention.

I claim:

1. The combination with a substantially vertically arranged socket piece, of a hanger hook provided with a shank and a door-sup porting foot mounted thereon and adapted to be reciprocated and rotated within said socket piece, a cam formed on the lower edge of the socket, a projection on the shank to engage said cam, whereby longitudinal movement of the shank will cause the same to rotate, and means for supporting the hanger hook in the socket piece.

2. The combination with a substantially vertically arranged socket piece, of a hanger hook provided with a shank and a door-supporting foot mounted thereon, the lower edge of the socket being formed on a curve, a shoulder on the shank to engage the curved edge of the socket, whereby the longitudinal movement of the shank will cause the same to rotate, and a projection on the shank, the socket'being formed with a slot to receive said projection.

3. The combination with a substantially vertically arranged socket piece, of a hanger hook provided with a shank and a door-supporting foot mounted thereon, a cam at the lower end of the socket, a shoulder on the shank to engage said cam, whereby upward movement of the shank will cause the same to rotate, and means at the upper end of the socket and shank whereby the shank is sup ported in the socket and caused by gravity to rotate back into its normal position.

4. The combination with a substantially vertically arranged socket piece, of a hanger hook provided. with a shank and a door-supporting foot mounted thereon, the lower edge of the socket being formed, on a curve, a shoulder on the shank to engage the curved edge of the socket, and a projection on the shank, the socket being formed with a cam slot to receive said projection, whereby longitudinal movement of the shank will cause the same to rotate about its longitudinal axis.

5. The combination with a substantially vertically arranged socket piece, of a hanger hook pro vided with a shank and a doorsupporting foot mounted thereon, the lower edge of the socket being formed on a curve, a shoulder on the shank to engage said curve, a shoulder on the socket forming a stop for said shank, and cooperating means on the socket piece and shank whereby the latter is rotatably supported in the former.

6. The combination with a substantially vertically arranged socket pieee,.of a hanger hook provided with a shank and a door-supporting foot mounted thereon and adapted to be reciprocated and rotated within said socket piece, cooperating means whereby the longitudinal movement of said shank will cause the same to rotate about its longitudinal axis, and a pointed heel on said shank by means of which an upward pressure may be exerted against the shank.

EDIVARJ) A. l ll l'jli.

itnesses P. II. TRUMAN, H. 11. Pack. 

